Park Ye-eun gets first goal in Europe as Hearts beat Spartans 4-3

Korean midfielder Park Ye-eun scored her first goal since moving to Europe last year on Sunday, kicking off a comeback for Scottish Women's Premier League side Heart of Midlothian WFC in their 4-3 win over Spartans FC Women.

Park Ye-eun celebrates after scoring for Heart of Midlothian in a Scottish Women's Premier League game against Spartans FC Women at Ainslie Park Stadium in Edinburgh on Sunday in a photo posted to the official Hearts X, formerly Twitter, page. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean midfielder Park Ye-eun scored her first goal since moving to Europe last year on Sunday, kicking off a comeback for Scottish Women's Premier League side Heart of Midlothian WFC in their 4-3 win over Spartans FC Women.

Park, who joined Women’s Super League club Brighton & Hove Albion last year and then moved north to Hearts last month, scored in the 42nd minute to chip away at an early 2-0 deficit.

Spartans started strong at Ainslie Park Stadium in Edinburgh, with Rebecca Gailbraith getting an early brace in the 27th and 27th minutes. Park got one back in the 42nd, only for an own goal from Georgia Timms to put Spartans up shortly after the break.

Hearts bounced back with a vengeance in the dying minutes of the game, with Timms canceling out her early mistake in the 78th minute to make it 3-2, and then Olufolsade Adamolekun going on an incredible last-minute run with goals in the 86th minute and stoppage time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the home side.

With the win, Hearts now sit in fourth place on the SWPL, well behind the leading Glaswegian trio of Celtic, Rangers and Glasgow City, but edging out fifth-place Patrick Thistle.

Park moved from Korea’s Gyeongju KHNP to Brighton in August last year, joining Lee Geum-min to make Brighton at the time the only top-tier team in Europe with two active Korean footballers. That detail was notable at the time, although has become a lot less so recently — FC Midtjylland, Birmingham City Women and Celtic all have at least two Koreans on the books now.

But unlike Lee, Park’s career in Brighton fell flat. She made only four appearances, clocking up a total of 34 minutes for the Super League club.

Things have changed significantly since moving to Hearts. Park has started the two games she has appeared in, already playing for more than four-time what she managed in a year at Brighton and has now scored her first goal since moving overseas.

An on-and-off pick for the national team, Park has 16 caps and four goals to her name for Korea. She has not been called up much this year, missing out on the 2023 Women’s World Cup but making it to the Arnold Clark Cup earlier in the year. She has not been called up for the upcoming Paris Olympics qualifiers later this month.

Hearts will be back in action on Sunday as they take on Motherwell in the SWPL.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]